


Phantasmagorical

by bluzani



Category: Haikyuu!!, ダイヤのA | Daiya no A | Ace of Diamond
Genre: Alternate Universe, Baseball Player Hinata Shouyou, Confusion, Crossover, Focused on Hinata's point of view, Gen, Kidnapping, Memory Loss, Not Beta Read, Platonic Relationships, Science Fiction, Shouyou and Raichi are BFFs, Surreal, Volleyball Player Sawamura Eijun, and that's kind of this story, i'll add more tags later i promise, it's really cute, kind of, kind of?, like soft sci fi, take everything and move it a little bit to the left
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-09-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:55:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23489449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluzani/pseuds/bluzani
Summary: They tell him his name is Himura Shouyou. He's fifteen years old and loves baseball more than anything else.He's going to be the ace.
Relationships: Hinata Shouyou & Karasuno Volleyball Club, Hinata Shouyou & Kozume Kenma, Hinata Shouyou & Todoroki Raichi, Hinata Shouyou & Yakushi Baseball Club, Iwaizumi Hajime & Sawamura Eijun, Oikawa Tooru & Sawamura Eijun, Sawamura Eijun & Aobajousai Volleyball Club, Sawamura Eijun & Seidou Baseball Club
Comments: 8
Kudos: 31





	1. beginnings

They tell him he’s Himura Shouyou. He’s sixteen years old, 163cm, with a shock of bright orange hair and the bright sunny personality to match.

They tell him they found him wandering on the street late at night. That he had been missing for about a week, they were so worried, they didn’t think they would find him.

They tell him that he loves baseball more than anything. That in middle school he gathered a ragtag team of his own with plans to become the best pitcher there ever was, height be damned.

They tell him that the missing memories are normal, knowing what he went through. They don’t elaborate any more than that.

They tell him that they know him. Something deep inside him says otherwise.

“Sho-chan! Sho-chan over here!”

Shouyou turns to find his best (and only) friend grinning, x-shaped scar stretching oddly across his cheek. People are milling about, walking to their own classes, but at the shouting turn their eyes toward the energetic first-year. Noticing all the eyes on him, he seemingly shrinks, his hands coming down from where he’d been waving them and his cheeks flushing a bright pink.

Smiling fondly at his shy friend, Shouyou makes his way over, shoving as needed through the crowd due to his rather lacking height. When he finally reaches him, Raichi’s eyes are downcast and he’s chuckling nervously. “Don’t sweat it, Raichi,” Shouyou exclaims happily. “I’m sure no one will even mention the shouting.”

Raichi glances up and smiles back at him. “I hope not,” he mumbles. “We better get going though, if we’re late to class dad’ll have us running laps for hours.”

Shouyou grimaces at the thought. Regardless of energy levels, there are some things he just would rather not do. “Race you there!” he challenges, before taking off in a sprint. He can hear Raichi behind him, laughing loudly in the way he only does when he’s competing. It feels oddly familiar, but when he tries to focus in on the thought it fades away like it was never there. He lets it go.

His start at Yakushi High School was an odd one. Originally he wasn’t even attending the school, but another one across town. At the start of June, however, he had went missing on his way back from school. His parents always let him skate back on his own, his worn-out skateboard beneath his feet, the same one he’d had since he started middle school. One day though, they had found the board two streets away from his school, Shouyou nowhere in sight.

After a scare like that, his parents were wary of the neighborhood. So a couple days after Shouyou was found and returned, his family packed up and carted their whole lives over to Suginami, where he was enrolled at Yakushi two months and two weeks after the school year had started.

His first day, no one spoke to him. They stared (it was hard not to, with hair like his) but they kept their distance. Whispers filled the halls around him as he walked as his shoulders curled in and his ears burned bright pink.

He’d found it hard to believe that Himura Shouyou was as bright and personable as he was told. 

When he finally made it to the correct class, he slumped down in his seat hoping it would help him avoid the curious gazes around him. It didn’t work. So he resigned himself to hours of sitting alone while being gawked at like the newest addition to a zoo.

And then he met Todoroki Raichi.

Sitting directly to his left by the window, the other boy had his head resting on crossed arms, looking like he wanted nothing more than to turn invisible. Shoyo, feeling like he had found an ally if not a friend, hastily introduced himself. “Hello, my name is Himura Shouyou, it’s nice to meet you!”

The other boy’s cheeks flushed pink as he quickly sat up, head bowed. He glanced side to side, head going back and forth over and over as if determining whether or not Shouyou was speaking to him. Coming to the conclusion that he was, he spoke in a voice barely more than a whisper. “It’s, uh, very nice to meet you Himura-kun. I’m Todoroki Raichi.” The last part was so quiet Shouyou almost couldn’t even hear it.

“Just Shouyou is fine!” he excitedly told Todoroki, who seemed friendly enough regardless of his meekness. “Today’s my first day! I’m not really one for classes, but I get to play baseball afterwards so I’m gonna get through them!” At his exclamation, Todoroki’s head shot up, letting Shouyou see clearly the scar across his cheek he hadn’t noticed before. “Oh, do you like baseball Todoroki-kun?”

Todoroki’s shy expression transformed, the boy before him going from small and quiet to open and larger than life. “I love baseball! Batting is the best thing ever!” His grin took up most of his face, and Shouyou found himself grinning back before he even thought about it. “Oh, and you can just call me Raichi,” he added quietly at the end, smile falling slightly as he seemingly shrunk once again right before Shouyou’s eyes. No way.

“I’m so happy we met! I can’t wait to play together, Raichi,” Shouyou said earnestly. Eyes taking in Shouyou’s bright smile, Raichi’s grin widened once more, the pink from his cheeks darkened but that smile stayed.

Within one class of starting at his new school, Shouyou had made a friend.

That very same day, Shouyou had his first baseball practice. He had been looking forward to it the whole day, ready to get rid of some of the annoying extra energy that had been plaguing him. By the time he got changed and down to the field, a lot of the players were already there, Raichi included. He was almost unrecognizable from in class, laughing loudly and freely and shouting to the other players.  
There was an older man sitting on the bench, his legs splayed out comfortably and arms slung casually across the backrest. Assuming he was the coach, Shouyou made his way over to introduce himself. The man glanced at him, noticeably lingering on his hair, before grunting at him. Slightly more nervous, Shouyou felt his smile falter. “Um, hello sir. My name is Himura Shouyou, and I’m the new student who wanted to join the team.”

His eyes lit in recognition. “Oh yeah, I forgot that was supposed to be today. I’m Coach Todoroki.”

Shouyou paused, looking intently at the coach before turning to look at Raichi, and then back once more. “Are, uh, are you Raichi’s dad?” he asked hesitantly, noting the similarities between the two. Todoroki looked slightly surprised, before letting out a loud laugh.

“First names, huh? Well damn, the kid actually made a friend outside of the team. Or not, anymore. Yeah, that idiot is my kid,” Todoroki’s words were harsher than his gaze as he looked at his son. “What position do you play, ginger?”

The nickname rang in his head, a wave of dizziness hitting him as a glance of blond hair filled his vision before fading away. Coming back to himself, he noticed the coach staring at him oddly. His limbs were buzzing unpleasantly, but he hadn’t fainted. That was good. Shaking his head, Shouyou gave Todoroki an apologetic smile before answering. “I’m a pitcher, sir.”

Todoroki gave him another glance before speaking, tone condescending. “Not very intimidating on the mound with that height and that hair, are ya?”

Shouyou straightened up, eyes burning. “It’s true that I’m not very tall. However! I can pitch!” he declared, feeling another wave of deja-vu that he let pass. Todoroki let out another loud laugh as a grin stretched across his face. Shouyou was immediately reminded of Raichi.

“Keep that determination kid. We’re gonna need it if you guys are gonna take me to nationals. Go warm up with the rest of the team, and then meet Akiba in the bullpen.” Shouyou smiled widely, eyes squinting as he beamed at the coach.

“Yes sir!”

One of the first things Shouyou remembered since he went missing was sitting in an empty room in a police station office, parents sat across from him and a doctor to the side. An officer remained standing towards the room, looking tense.

His parents. His mother, Himura Ayano, had long, dark hair that fell to her mid-back, and warm brown eyes like Shouyou’s own. She was friendly enough, smiled at him with tears in her eyes as they told him how happy they were to have him back. His father, Himura Naoki, stood at 165 and not a centimeter more, with messy light brown hair that seemed almost untamable. Just like Shouyou’s. He looked at Shouyou with dark eyes, not quite smiling but not quite frowning either. Simply looking.

“We were so worried Shouyou!” His mother fretted, tears beginning to stream down her face. “I thought we were never going to see you again, baby. We’ve missed you so much.” She reached out one hand towards him across the table. Shouyou took it in his smaller one. It was cold and steady.

His father looked over to the doctor. “What happened? You said they found him wandering in the street?”

The doctor shifted beside Shouyou. “Yes, Himura-san. He was found in Nerima by a kind lady who brought him in. He could only remember his first name, but it was easy enough to narrow down who he was from there. I’m afraid I’m not sure if his memories will return, but as he is in perfect health otherwise I felt it would be best if he went home with you.”

His mother let out another sob. “Nerima? How on earth did he get all the way over there?”

The way she said it made it seem like Nerima was on the other side of the planet. How ironic that he would find himself a stone’s throw away in Suginami so soon after.

They had asked him, when they first found him, how and why he was in Nerima. He hadn’t answered, as he had felt so out of it and lost that he didn’t even want to speak. He did recall feeling lost, roaming around in a daze unsure of where he was until he was found. Besides, he didn’t know how to put a name to the feeling of familiarity that came from Nerima, like he had been there in a dream. It wasn’t too crazy an idea, after all he was born and raised in Tokyo. He felt that there was something more to it though, a deeper reason to why he had felt drawn there.

“Please make sure to keep an eye on him. If he’s getting dizzy, zoning out, or experiencing headaches or other symptoms out of the ordinary contact me. Other than that, he’s free to go. I think the officer has some paperwork for you to sign.” Shouyou snapped back to attention, realizing the conversation had been moving on around him as he lingered in his own thoughts. He stood along with his parents, following them out the door as they thanked both the doctor and the officer for their time.

His father gave him the time worn leather glove he called his own as soon as they got to the house. With a smile warmer than Shouyou had expected from the man, he placed a baseball in his hand and said “I know you’ve probably been missing this.”

Shouyou felt confused. A part inside of him was screaming that YESYESYESYES I GET TO PLAY AGAIN, but another was saying WRONGWRONGWRONG I CAN’T HOLD THE BALL WITH ONE HAND. But he pushed his feelings to the side, and glanced at the gray-white leather stitched together with red string, His fingers fell across the seams automatically, and the glove he had slid on his left hand fit better than a dream. This was his.

Pitching came to him as naturally as breathing. Even with the aching gap in his memory of playing in little league, hours spent pitching into a net alone trying to perfect his aim, even without that his body knew what to do. Muscle-memory, his parents told him. Something you did so much cannot be so easily be forgotten. The body remembers where the mind forgets.

And so he pitched and pitched and pitched in the backyard, where a homemade mound stood across from a makeshift net, as he waited to play once more.

When Shouyou finally got to pitch in the bullpen, he was so excited he could hardly contain himself. He was bouncing on the tips of his toes, spikes digging into the clay beneath his feet. A genuine catcher on a genuine baseball team was going to let him pitch to him. It seemed even more unreal than losing 15 years worth of memories.

Akiba crouched down across from him, completely geared up as Todoroki stood behind him. He was a first-year as well, Shouyou recalled, but one that the coach had known for many years. He gave Shouyou a kind smile from behind the plate, gaze steady as he waited.

“Let’s start with an easy fastball down the middle, Himura!” the coach called out. “If you can’t do that then I’m not gonna waste my time any further.”

Shouyou wanted to laugh. A fastball down the middle? Easy as can be. He pulled his leg up high, glove twisting in front of him, and released the ball from his fingertips. It was a good one, he just knew it. The pitch seemed to agree, as it went dead on towards the middle. As it reached Akiba, however, it took a sudden hook to the right and down. The catcher adjusted quickly, scooping the ball up. His eyes, however, were wide with shock. 

As he stood there, staring at the catcher’s mitt, Shouyou felt dread creep over him. It was a fastball down the middle, HOW did he mess up a fastball down the middle? While his thoughts were screaming at him, the coach glanced slowly from the ball to Shouyou.

“Damn,” Todoroki said lowly. “I take it back, kid. A moving fastball? We can work with that.”

Moving fastball. Moving fastball moving fastball movingfastball. That’s right. His team used to be scared to catch his throws. How could he forget that?

As the coach grinned at him from behind the plate while Raichi laughed excitedly from the mound beside him, he found himself not caring. He had forgotten a lot of things, after all. What’s one more? The rules of baseball were the same as before, and as long as he remembered those, he could make anything work. After all, Himura Shouyou never gives up.


	2. dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! To anyone who was waiting on an update, I apologize for taking so long. Anyway, I wanted to let you all know that I'm thinking this will be maybe around 10 or so chapters, as the timeline that I plan on going with has the events of the story taking place over about a month. I'm hoping to have the next update much sooner than this one, but I hope you enjoy reading!

Shouyou wasn’t Yakushi’s best pitcher by any means. Not only had he joined the team rather late, months after everyone else had already started training, but he also had never been formally taught anything according to his parents. While Tokyo was overflowing with baseball teams, the school he attended never had one until he convinced a giant group of friends to form one with him.

He wasn’t quite sure where those friends ended up. His parents didn’t want to overwhelm him with visitors he couldn’t remember, so they didn’t talk about them much. Or at all, really.

Seeing as the Summer Koshien was to start July 10th, and Shouyou joined the team in late June, he didn’t expect to get to play much at all. Yakushi was a rather small school though, and the team was even smaller. Multiple players on the team could pitch, but that didn’t make them pitchers.

Sanada Shunpei though, was different. The first time Shouyou saw his pitching, he was in awe. Aggressive and fast, Shouyou could tell just by watching that he was the ace. He stood proud and tall on the mound, even in practice, and was unafraid to pitch inside even after occasionally hitting batters. Sanada was a pitcher to look up to and chase after. Someone to beat.

When he shared this sentiment with Raichi, however, the fellow first year laughed so loudly and obnoxiously that the rest of the team looked over at them from across the field. He didn’t seem to notice, however, as he turned to Shouyou with a wide grin. “Sanada-senpai is leagues above you, Sho-chan. You’re gonna have to work a lot harder if you ever wanna catch up!”

Shouyou glared determinedly at his friend. “Then I’ll work ten times as hard! I’m gonna be the ace!” Raichi only laughed again, eyes gleaming.

“You better get started!”

Yakushi wasn’t known as a baseball school, not like Inashiro or Seido. It also wasn’t a boarding school, so practices were once a day, the team working with a much more limited time frame. That was only official practices, however.

After his first few days, unsatisfied with his lack of progress, Shouyou started running in the mornings. He expected it to be relatively tough at the start, but was pleasantly surprised to find that he was able to go for much longer than he expected. Long enough that he lost track of time and Raichi had to come looking for him when he failed to meet him as had become their usual over the last week.

“You shouldn’t run so much, Sho-chan,” Raichi scolded as they made their way to class. “Getting yourself all worn out before practice isn’t going to help you improve.”

Shouyou felt a smile take over his face at Raichi’s worrying. The other boy was rather shy, and always acted before thinking on the field, often making mistakes which caused the coach to groan about wanting to switch his son for Sanada. Yet, he was also very sweet, and it was unsurprising to Shouyou that Raichi would nag him over something he could very easily see his friend doing, should he decide it would improve his batting. He cared, even if he was being a little hypocritical about it.

“I’m okay Raichi, I think I could’ve ran even longer if I wanted to. If I want to be the ace, then I need to be able to pitch an entire game!” Raichi opened his mouth, probably to refute Shouyou’s statement, but he beat him to it. “I know that Sanada-senpai doesn’t pitch entire games, but I already told you that I’m going to be even better. And a great way to start is beating him on how much I can pitch!”

Raichi let out a laugh as they sat in their desks, at which the class all at once turned to look at him, cutting it off. His head whipped around to face the window, but Shouyou could see his earn turn red. When they went back to their own conversations, Raichi grinned at him with flushed cheeks. “You might wanna start with actually being able to throw the ball right.”

“Raichi! How could you?” Shouyou gasped in betrayal, putting a hand on his heart as if he had been struck. He may have been joking, but he knew his friend was right. He needed to start from the ground up.

At practice that day, Shouyou went to the coach and begged him for help improving his form. The drill he showed him involving a towel quickly became part of Shouyou’s morning practices, as well as his team practices. The results were rather quick and he pitched more and more where he intended, keeping better balance and honing where the ball went as it crossed the plate.

At practice on July 1st, Shouyou got jersey number 10.

The room was colder than usual.

His fists were purple-blue from where he was pounding on the door, and his throat felt raw. When he tried to stand, his legs shook beneath him and he was forced to sit back down on his bed. Everything within him screamed to get up, to yell, to keep trying.

But he was so tired.

Red dots littered his arms and blended with purplish black, making a galaxy of gruesome constellations with the freckles on his pale skin. He could hear shouting from the next room over, the familiar voice sending a shudder through his body and into his soul. As he turned on his side, he felt a deep resignation take over his body. Someone was watching him again. He just wanted to go home.

Shouyou didn’t get a lot of sleep that night.

The next day, Shouyou had to drag himself out of bed. When he glanced in the mirror, the area below his eyes was painted in dark purplish black the color of the skin across his arms where did that come from who did that why wouldn’t they stop-

He pinched his arm harshly, pushing the thoughts away. They wouldn’t help anything. If he didn’t get it together he would miss his morning run. Determinedly (if not steadily), Shouyou grabbed some running clothes and hopped in the shower, the temperature turned as freezing as he could make it. After running a towel through his hair harshly, Shouyou raced out the door with damp hair and a granola bar in his mouth.

They were just nightmares.

And if he pushed himself a little harder that day, doing nearly double the laps he usually did to the point where Raichi found him clutching the grass in a desperate grab for his lungs to start working? It had nothing to do with the nightmares that haunted him in his sleep, and everything to do with the dreams he chased while he was awake.

“Shouyou that was so irresponsible! What were you thinking? Koshien starts in one week. One. You’re running yourself into the ground!” Raichi’s face was red, which in the grand scheme of things wasn’t an unusual sight. This time, however, it was flushed red with anger. That more than anything had Shouyou’s attention, even if the words weren’t quite processing.

“Dad is going to kill you!” Raichi continued, this time with Shouyou looking straight at him. For once the other boy wasn’t shrinking away, but instead was standing tall and confident as he was more vocal than Shouyou had ever seen him away from a baseball field. “He’s going to kill you and bury you on the field as a reminder to everyone else, and then he’s going to kill me for not stopping you from being this stupid and replace me with Nada-senpai while everyone shudders in fear because he doesn’t usually get very mad but I already know that you managed it this time. He’s gonna take one look at you and sit you on the bench!”

Shouyou very tactfully did not tell Raichi that in face it was him that usually didn’t get angry, and that after seeing him mad he really doubted his dad would manage to be scarier. Because a mad Raichi was just wrong.

Forcing his shaking legs to move, Shouyou stumbled forward until he could wrap his arms around his friend. Raichi just stood there, still except for a slight movement that might be shaking. His heart jolted painfully in his chest. “I’m sorry Raichi,” he murmured softly. “I didn’t mean to overdo it, and I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Raichi’s breath came out in one broken sound that seemed almost like a sob. “Don’t do that Shouyou. I know we haven’t been friends for long, but that doesn’t mean you’re any less important to me. You looked like you had collapsed on the ground and I didn’t know what to do or how long you had been there, and I can’t do that Shouyou.” Raichi sounded like he had something fighting against his voice as he forced the sentence out, that terrible shakiness still present and he slowly fisted his hands into the bottom of his shirt. Shouyou hated himself a little.

“I won’t do it again Raichi, I promise. I was upset but I shouldn’t have been so reckless. I’m sorry.” He hugged his friend even tighter, the two forming an unsteady mess with shakiness formed by both exhaustion and fear. The warning bell sounded from the building a slight distance away, but they didn’t move until long after it rang again.

As they sat in their second class (having missed the first on account of Shouyou and Raichi each having a minor breakdown), Shouyou knew something had to change. That hadn’t been his first nightmare since they found him, and he seriously doubted that it would be the last. But if Raichi’s reaction was any indictation, he couldn’t continue to just ignore them. No, he needed to find the root of the problem.

Ignoring the teacher lecturing at the front of the class, Shouyou flipped to a new page of his notebook. In his best handwriting possible, he carefully wrote out a title: WTF is Happening to Me.

Staring at it for a moment, Shouyou shakily scratched out is happening and replaced it with happened. His shoulders shrunk slightly as the weight of that admittance settled across him. It felt as wrong as it felt right. Something within him knew, beyond the doubts that plagued him, that there was something bigger here than childish nightmare scenarios dreamt up from stress and fear.

1\. Why was I in Nerima?

The point seemed kind of stupid the longer he looked at it. After all, wasn’t that what the police were investigating? Still, there was something there that itched at the back of his mind. 

2\. Where was that nightmare?  
3\. What happened there?

The more Shouyou stared at his list, the more frustrated he felt. There wasn’t a lot there, he knew just by looking at these three things that there was practically nothing of substance. He could easily explain them away too. I was in Nerima because I got kidnapped. That nightmare must have been something my mind made up because of the trauma. Nothing happened there as far as I know because I don’t remember anything.

He stared at the list a moment longer before flipping back to where his notes had left off. It was a lost cause anyways. Best that he pay attention so he didn’t get suspended from baseball, the coach was bound to be angry enough without him getting in trouble for his dumb speculations.

“Ginger!” 

Shouyou turned around quickly, Raichi darting away from his side and over to the rest of the team. Traitor. “Um, hi coach. Did you need something, sir?” He tried to look as innocent as possible, smiling slightly up at Coach Todoroki to hide his hesitation.

“What the hell were you thinking this morning? Raichi said you collapsed because you ran so much, why the hell would you do that before practice?” Yeah, he wasn’t that lucky.

“I didn’t collapse,” Shouyou protested weakly. “I was just tired and resting on the ground, that’s all.”

The coach did not look impressed. In fact, he looked decidedly resigned as if the gods above had forsaken him. “Not the point, Himura. You’re on the bench today while everyone warms up, and after that you’re gonna stand and catch balls for me during drills. That’s all. No throwing, no running, no pitching. The summer qualifiers start in a week, you need to rest for God’s sake.”

Chastised, Shouyou made his way to the bench where he sat down heavily (not from exhaustion thank you very much) and stretched his legs out to watch the rest of the team. He hated to admit it, but his body was aching in a way much different than after a hard practice. He had definitely overdone it. Watching the team run their warm-up laps, pushing each other both metaphorically and physically, he couldn’t help but feel a little foolish. After all, with such a great team around him he didn’t need to push his body to the brink of breaking. Even if he would never tell them of the nightmares that haunted his sleep, he could rely on them to make him feel better. And that was enough.

Practice seemed to simultaneously drag on for years and pass in the blink of an eye. Next thing he knew, he was waving goodbye as he dragged himself home, tired despite spending most of practice doing not much of anything. Result of little sleep and a hard workout, he supposed.

The house was quiet when he opened the front door, his parents not in the living room nor in the kitchen which he could see from the entry hall. He shut the door softly, slipping his shoes off of his feet in exchange for house slippers, before going on a search for them. After finding nothing downstairs, he made his way toward his room and his parents’ offices where he finally heard their voices. Sighing softly in relief, he went to open the door before freezing when he heard his name.

“-Shouyou so close to that place. Naoki, I know they said that it wouldn’t trigger anything but I’m worried. This whole thing seems so dangerous, what if he remembers?” His mother’s voice was faint combined with both the low volume and the door between them. Still, he stayed there by the door, his breath caught in his throat.

“I know honey,” his father’s soothing tone spoke hardly a moment later. “But we need to do this, exactly as they said. It’ll only be three years max. Then we’ll be in a much better place than before, right?”

Shouyou felt his blood rushing through his ears. His mother’s response was left unheard as he quietly backed away and fell into his room, the door shutting and locking behind him. Me, they’re talking about me. What place, where do they not want me to go?

He felt like he had been transported back to that morning, where the world seemed unreal and everything was out of place. As he curled up into a ball, blanket thrown over his head, all he could do was hope and hope and hope with all of his heart that he would remember just what had happened to him one short month ago.


End file.
